David M. Knight, CBI

Co-Founder, President/CEO/CFO, Resource Fiber LLC
Co-Founder, President/CFO, Resource Fiber/Alabama LLC

David, now in his sixth start-up at Resource Fiber, is an entrepreneurial executive known for development of new business segments with emphasis on sustainability and delivering consistent strong bottom line results.

He is a strategic visionary with a track record of innovative problem-solving in high growth and challenging environments. His primary responsibilities include setting the company’s strategic vision and development strategies, establishing values and building company culture, raising and allocating capital, and business development.

Prior to Resource Fiber, David and his wife, Ann Knight, founded Teragren Fine Bamboo Flooring, Panels & Veneer in 1998 to introduce a newly developed bamboo flooring product to the U.S. market to provide an alternative to wood-based products.

David managed growth capital raises through equity and debt; maintained a twelve-year relationship with one factory group in China; and grew revenue at a rate of 20% to 40% annually through 2008 achieving $21M in annual revenue. Teragren is now the nation’s industry leader, setting the U.S. standard for quality bamboo building products through stringent manufacturing specifications and continuous product innovation. During David’s tenure at the company, he was a finalist for the prestigious Ernst & Young Pacific Northwest Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2008 and 2009.

Prior to Teragren, David was President/CEO and co-founder of Medical Dental Development Services (MDDS) which specialized in medical practice valuations, sales, mergers and consolidations completing transactions valued in excess of $75M.

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Craig A. Thomason

Chief Operations Officer/Executive Vice President, Strategic Development
Co-Founder, Resource Fiber LLC + Resource Fiber/Alabama LLC

Craig’s primary responsibilities include management of internal operations and performance, strategic direction setting, new opportunity and partnership development, and ensuring that Resource Fiber strategic resources are maximized. He also provides business advisory services to Fortune 100 companies and, in that capacity, assists senior executives in successfully executing on strategic change.

Prior to founding Resource Fiber, Craig was a Senior Vice President at Wells Fargo/Wachovia, focused on strategy development and executing on large scale strategic initiatives. Throughout his career, he has helped companies achieve their strategic goals, either as an internal change agent or as a member of a third party consultancy.

Prior to his experience at Wells Fargo/Wachovia, Craig was at Pricewaterhouse-Coopers and focused on providing strategy execution services for companies in a broad range of industries including: consumer products, forest products, financial services, transportation and logistics, mining, financial and professional services.

Prior to that, Craig worked in ebusiness strategy at Scient, including an interna-tional assignment in Paris. Additionally, he worked at Georgia Pacific and gained experience with cellulose-based consumer products and agroforestry.

Craig graduated from Clemson University with a BS in industrial Management (1987) and an MBA with a focus in Marketing and Finance from the University of South Carolina (1989). Craig’s interest and exposure to commercial agriculture is long-standing, having grown up with a grandfather who was a farmer and having the opportunity to participate at an early age on what is still a working family farm.

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Ann J. Knight

Chief Communications Officer, Executive Vice President, Co-Founder, Resource Fiber LLC + Resource Fiber/Alabama LLC

Ann’s primary responsibility is the articulation and management of the Resource Fiber message and value proposition to the market and other constituents. In this role, she sets the public relations and communications strategy. As a member of the executive team, Ann is a key contributor to the development of strategic direction for the company.

Prior to Resource Fiber, Ann was Executive Vice President/Global Brand Director and co-founder of Teragren Fine Bamboo Flooring, Panels & Veneer for 12 years. Ann built a well-recognized consumer brand driving the company’s sales to $21M in annual revenue at its peak. In addition, she delivered strategic, high-impact, and sustainable solutions for the company’s collateral and launched its social media campaign.

Prior to Teragren, Ann was Executive Vice President, Marketing and co-founder of Medical Dental Development Services (MDDS) which specialized in medical practice valuations, sales, mergers and consolidations completing transactions valued in excess of $75M.

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Jonathan M. Scherch, Ph.D., MSW

Executive Vice President, Academic & Community Affairs
Resource Fiber LLC + Resource Fiber/Alabama LLC
Co-Founder, Resource Fiber/Alabama LLC

Dr. Scherch is responsible for setting and executing on the Resource Fiber strategy for academic and community engagement. His primary responsibilities include working with leading academic research institutes and community development entities to construct the R&D, education, and economic development infrastructure critical to the success of Resource Fiber and the communities in which it operates. Dr. Scherch brings a portfolio of academic, government, organizational and community collaborations to the team.

Dr. Scherch is Dean, B.A. Liberal Studies at Antioch University Seattle, with MSW (Pittsburgh) and Ph.D. (Tennessee) degrees in Social Work, and is a returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Jamaica).  His interdisciplinary teaching, research and writing have led him across the US and around the world, reflecting local-global themes of sustainable community and economic development. His doctoral work and subsequent book publications focused on regional sustainability issues across southern Appalachia.

In 2009, Dr. Scherch was among 33 finalists for the prestigious international Buckminster Fuller Challenge award – an award for distinctive and timely design proposals for social, economic and environmental change and sustainability.

Since 2005, Dr. Scherch has worked at the invitation of the Prime Minister of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile to assess and support organic farming transitions within Tibetan refugee settlements of south India. In 2006-07, he completed a sabbatical within the Institute of Bamboo, at Zhejiang Agricultural & Forestry University in China, with teaching and research focused on bamboo resource systems for sustainable development. His work examined social, economic and technical systems across various bamboo industry supply chains — from forest, to factory, to market fulfillment. He later returned as a Keynote Presenter for the 3rd China National Symposium & International Conference on Bamboo.

In 2004, Dr. Scherch founded Pacific Bamboo Resources, a 501(c)3 tax-exempt institute focusing on innovations for emerging bamboo industries and economies, including project pursuits in the US, China, Bangladesh and the Philippines.

Active among for-profit, non-profit and community organizations over the years, Dr. Scherch is a founding Board Member of Climate Solutions, and served as Program Vice President for the Northwest Chapter of the Society for Ecological Restoration International, whose membership of environmental professionals spans seven NW states and provinces.

Dr. Scherch recently presented at the International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability, Hiroshima, Japan, January 23-25, 2013. The presentation entitled “New Roots for Sustainable Development:  Bamboo Resources and Triple Bottom Line Performance in Alabama’s Black Belt Region” introduced a new initiative among public, private and academic leaders to create a multisector bamboo industry for sustainable community and economic development within Alabama’s black belt region. 

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